This sermon was delivered on December 12, 2021 at the weekly service at The Kensington in Galesburg, IL.
On this Sunday of Joy, we just have to talk about Joy to the World. Since the 20th Century, Joy to the World has been the most published Christmas hymn in North America- it appears in nearly 700 different hymnals of various denominations, backgrounds, faith traditions, and geographical areas. It’s a hymn we all know well, but we should still take a moment to listen to it.
The most interesting thing to me about this hymn is that the writer of the words and the composer of the music we know and love never met and did not work together.
The author is Isaac Watts. Isaac Watts was a prolific hymn writer- he wrote over 750 hymns in his lifetime and many are still sung today. In addition to Joy to the World, he wrote “When I survey the wondrous cross” and “Oh God our help in Ages Past” and my favorite hymn, “My Shepherd Will Supply my Need.” Watts was a “Nonconformist”- a protestant who did not conform to the governance of the Church of England. Nonconformists were not allowed to participate in English society in the same way as members of the Church of England- they couldn’t run for public office or attend university. He eventually became a pastor at a Congregational Chapel in London.1
Watts believed that the tradition of the psalms should be expanded and continued in the church. So he began composing his own poetry to be used in church. He wrote all of the songs in the common meter- which is a typical song and poetry pattern. So typical in fact that it became known as “common meter.”2 What I love about common meter is that you can sing any song written in common meter to the Gilligan’s Island theme song. It works with Amazing Grace, with Emily Dickenson’s poetry, and even with Joy to the World.
But Joy to the World wasn’t written as a Christmas song. It was written instead from Psalm 98-, Psalm 96 and even a little from Genesis.3 It wasn’t intended to be about Christmas.Watts was inspired by the words “Shout for Joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music…Let the sea resound…let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy.” So he wrote a song about Joy and it was sung at all times of the year in his church, but it wasn’t universally known or published.
That took time. And a new tune.
Lowell Mason was a banker who, on weekends, served as a Sunday School teacher and organist at his Presbyterian church. Eventually he created a hymnal of his own which drew on classical composers. He in particular he loved Handel, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.4 The influences of Handel are particular heard in Mason’s tune named “Antioch.” But the tune he created needed words, and in 1836, he linked the two in his book “Occasional Psalm and Hymn Tunes.”5
But how did it become a Christmas hymn? Well, the short answer is that we aren’t sure. The longer answer is a little more complicated. There are a couple of things that are possibilities.
There’s the lyric “The Lord is come” (which some people sing as “The lord has come”) which can be interpreted as celebrating Jesus’ birth. But, that lyric also comes from Psalm 98- “Let them sing before the Lord for he comes to judge the earth.”
Or perhaps the lyric “Let every heart prepare him room”- we could interpret that as a reference to Mary and Joseph looking for room in the Inn. But again, that wasn’t Isaac Watts’ intention with the lyrics.
The answer might lie in Lowell Mason afterall. Because of Lowell’s love of Handel, there are some similarities between his music and “Glory to God” from Handel’s Messiah and THAT song is definitely a Christmas Song because it’s directly related to Luke 2. But, Honestly, that seems like a stretch.
In all of my research, I can’t find a definitive answer to why Joy to the World is a Christmas song. And yet, it’s not just *a* Christmas song- it’s quite arguably one of the most beloved hymns at this time of the year. It just doesn't feel like Christmas if you haven't sung it at least once!
I think it comes back to advent. The third sunday of Advent is “Joy” sunday and it is intended to remind us of the joy the world experienced at the birth of Jesus as well as the joy that we’ve made it halfway through Advent. The candle is pink because today is technically Gaudete Sunday. That comes from the latin mass for the the 3rd Sunday in advent which begins “Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico gaudete.” Which means, “Rejoice in the lord always, again I say rejoice.” The traditional color for this day is rose- which the priests wore and which has been translated into the candle colors. It’s intentionally different because it’s mean to be a break in the somber penitence of Advent and a focus on the Joy that is coming with the Birth of Christ. This practice- the advent wreath and gaudete sunday were long in practice before Isaac Watts wrote the words or before Lowell Mason wrote his music. But once Mason’s hymnal was published, I imagine folks looking for music about “Joy” they could sing on this sunday came across this hymn and made the connection. The song was recorded in 1911 as part of a Christmas Album, so that might have solidified its place as a Christmas hymn.
But I don’t suppose any of that is actually the point.
What really struck me as I was preparing for today was the notion that I think this song both is and isn’t a Christmas hymn. I mean yes, of course it is a Christmas song because we’ve made it one through tradition and by inextricably linking it to the season and to this day in Advent. But it’s also a song about the second coming- about the world reordering itself around Christ’s eventual return. And it’s even more about God- about praising God for everything God has done and will do in the world as described in Psalm 98. This song is about the past- celebrating what God has done before. The Present- celebrating what God is doing now, and the future- celebrating what God will do.
And so it brings to mind the words of Ebenezer Scrooge at the end of A Christmas Carol ““I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”
I think Joy to the World can be a way of carrying Christmas in our heart all year long. And, if Psalm 98 shows up in July? Maybe we’ll sing this hymn then too!
Amen.
1 Ace Collins, Stories behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2010), 108.
2 Bennet Bergman, “Common Meter,” LitCharts, accessed December 9, 2021, https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/common-meter.
3 Ace Collins, Stories behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2010), 110.
4 Stories behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, 112.
5 Lowell Mason, “Occasional Psalm and Hymn Tunes,” November 25, 2019, https://web.archive.org/web/20191125213821/https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b11858da2772cf01402ee6e/t/5b29109f2b6a2803f3ab3227/1529417903437/Mason-1836-OccasionalPsalm.pdf.